September 29, 2010
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The Daily News
1 Howz bout those Giants?
2 I have watched and sweat through every pitch, every flubbed play, every double play to witness a team that went from being practically a minor league flair to an honest threat to smash through the playoffs!
3 For those of you new to baseball, being in first place all alone on September 29 is everything you need to realize that YOUR team, the one you have lived and died for, is on top!
4 Like any sport, baseball pulls you into its family. You begin to feel that you personally KNOW these guys. And they let you know that yes, they personally know you.
5 I'll keep it short, honestly I will, 'cuz I need my beauty rest.
6 But I've been riveted with this amazing team of young guys and Old Brown Shoes all summer, and watched as they grew, matured, and have now become a bonafide powerhouse in major league baseball. And it's because they play as a TEAM, just like the song from Charlie Brown.
7 As a kid, I got into the Giants because my grandfather was WAY into them.
8 When my own Nonie passed away, my Mom told me to talk Giants with my grandfather, to try to keep his spirits up. He was crushed when he lost her, and spent many hours sobbing at our kitchen table. My job as a kid was to cheer him up. Our common denominator: our Giants.
9 He was my Papu. And we became best friends on the Giants alone. We talked about who we liked, who we hated, and who were Bums <ALWAYS the Dodgers, of course!>
10 I had to learn baseball, and Giants' baseball in paricular, pretty quickly.
11 I remember the nights we would sit at the table, he with a nice glass of Chianti, the classic bottles in the basket holders, and waste warm summer evenings talking baseball, and loving all of it, me with perhaps a glass if ice cold milk. He would smile and laugh with me, and I with him.
12 I wound up working for the Giants for nearly twenty-five years as a vendor, and later as a merch guy. I spent thousands of summers out at Candlestick Park loving every single pitch, loving every single hot dog, and loving the skies that could turn from sunshiny and amiable to fierce, foggy, and windy within milliseconds. I knew how to wear enough clothes to fight off the cold. I loved that visiting teams were intimidated by it.
13 Day games that began at noon midsummer were consistently warm and gorgeous. The ones that started at one turned pretty cold at around four. But noon games were classic baseball. Hot dogs and sodas, a small bag of peanuts, and ice cream around the sixth. It is a nostalgia that any baseball fan anywhere has, so I'll shorten it.
14 Point is, last night the new Giants looked VERY much like serious contenders for not only the playoffs. They might not make it. In July they were a 7-1 shot to make the playoffs. Not anymore. And they were a 20-1 shot to win the World Series. Not...
15 Okay, okay, maybe I'm a bit over the top.
16 Just abide the old geezer.
17 Last night, right before the Giants won, I finished totalling the grades for my last major class. I finished about thirty seconds before the game ended. I have one more class to add up, but it has only twenty-one students. So I had an enormous double-victory last night. By this afternoon, I'm going to be free of the burden of grading that has been on my back since the first day of school. It'll be DONE, and I will be free! To those of you in college, it's like having all your finals done and about two weeks off!
18 So please abide. And if you're a Giants' fan, raise a HUGE glass to an organization that has EVERYTHING together right now!
20 Can I get an " 'Attababe"?
21 Immina keep it short today, because I do indeed need to finish off that last class.
22 But I feel free, and amazing on this warm Autumn night. My yard is lit, the fountain mingles with a few summer crickets, and life is amazingly good.
23 I LOVE baseball, dudes.
24 But then, you KNEW that.
25 So I'm going to raise a glass, and tuck myself in bed, 'cuz it's already a half-hour past my bedtime. Drink to me; drink to my health.
26 Peace to you, my noble homies.
27 Late.
~H~
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